The End

27Jul08

Iyagi from Korea is officially finished. I’ve run out of energy to write this blog. Thanks for reading.

-Mike

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Fourth of July

08Jul08

Not much news here. We had a small party over the weekend for the Fourth of July. There were only about 4 of us Americans there, but the Canadians and Irish and the rest got into it and helped us celebrate. We played a game of American football, had a BBQ, and shot off some fireworks.

I have 2 months left at work. I’ve been enjoying the job a little more lately, but I won’t miss teaching. I have another week of vacation at the end of July. I’ll be heading to Japan for 4 days, taking the ferry. Have a great summer.

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Jeju

20Jun08

Here are a few pictures from my trip to Jeju Island. It’s the biggest island in Korea, off the southern coast. It’s sometimes referred to here as Korea’s Hawaii or Disneyland. It’s neither, but it’s still much prettier than anywhere else I’ve been in Korea, a particularly unbeautiful country. Jeju is a volcanic island one hour south of Seoul by plane. It’s the furthest you can go and still be in the country. There are a lot of beaches, and more noteworthy, a couple UNESCO sites.

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ESPN Korea

17Jun08

Either I didn’t have it at first, or they were just showing soccer every night, but ESPN Korea has turned out to be a great channel after all. This week they have the NBA Finals LIVE at 10am, which is perfect for me. The games finish just before I go to work. They also showed the French Open and US Open, not to mention every game of Euro 08 which I don’t have much interest in. Sure, all the anouncing is in Korean, but it’s much better than nothing.

A couple months after I got cable, the company changed the whole lineup of channels. They removed Arirang, Korea’s only English language channel. That was fine because it was like PBS only more boring. All it showed was boring documentaries about Korean culture. Then instead they added 3 FOX channels that show American shows every night from 9 – 12 or 1am. They have a lot of good shows I never watched at home like Rescue Me, 30 Rock, Monk, Bones, and much more. Plus That 70’s Show!

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From my class

14Jun08

[After reading a sentence containing the word wallet in class with some 5th or 6th graders]

Me: Wallet. What does this mean? What is a wallet?

Kevin: You have a wallet.

Me: Yes, I do. But what is a wallet?

Sarah: Uh…money house.

Me: Haha, yes, that’s good. Kevin, do you have a wallet?

Kevin: Yes, I do.

Me: Where?

Kevin: —

Me: Where is your wallet?

Sarah: At home?

Me: Here? Is it here?

Kevin: Yes, it’s in your pocket.

——

[At the end of class]

Me: Do you have any questions?

Kevin: Yes.

Me: What?

Kevin: Why do you have my wallet?

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Suwon Stormers

12Jun08

I started playing rugby. I’ve never played before, but I like it. It’s a good game. In January, I joined the local foreign soccer team. That lasted one game because I hate soccer. Rugby is much better. In April, a few foreign teachers put together a rugby team in Suwon. There are a few teams in Seoul and other cities, but there wasn’t one here before. I guess it’s a pretty popular game outside North America.

We played in a tournament in Seoul in May. We lost the first game badly to a team of huge Australian guys. It didn’t help that we didn’t know the house rules ahead of time. It also wouldn’t have made any difference. But we improved a bit after that. On the day we ended up 1-2-1. Here are a couple pictures from our game against a team of French high school students. We are in the black uniforms.

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Children’s Festival

07Jun08

A couple weeks ago, a large group of foreigners in the Suwon area hosted a festival for local children. It ran from 1 to 5pm on a Saturday afternoon. An American teacher named Ryan organized the festival in conjunction with the local YMCA. It was great to see how many teachers came out to help with the planning and just to play with the children. We had face painting, arts & crafts, and various games for the kids. My station was World of Sports where we gave the kids the chance to throw a baseball or football at a target. Here are some pictures from the event, which was by all accounts a great success. There was also a big article in the Korea Herald the week following the festival.

The last picture is of the boy who won the soccer ball I raffled off. For the record, that’s not me in the pictures.

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Busan

21May08

Here are some pictures from my trip to Busan.

This is the beach where we went surfing. I believe only two people from our trip got all the way up on the board, and I was not one of them, but surfing was still a hell of a lot of fun.

This is the Buddhist temple we visited. We came the day before Buddha’s birthday. You can see the lanterns covering the entire plaza and all the walkways. I don’t know if these were just put up for the celebration or are always there.

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Chuncheon & Sokcho

07May08

Last weekend was a long weekend in Korea because Monday was Children’s Day, a national holiday. Here are some pictures from my trip east to the cities of Chuncheon & Sokcho. This was my first time out of the Seoul metro area. Next weekend, I’m heading down to Busan a city on the southern coast and the 2nd largest city in Korea.

There was not a lot to do in Chuncheon. The city sits on a lake with mountains in the background. It’s pretty, but not as much as many other places I’ve seen. The main thing to do is take a ferry to the main island, but it’s mostly for camping, so there’s nothing actually on the island. The animation museum sounded interesting, but it was on the other side of the lake, not in the city, so you couldn’t get there. Chuncheon is also famous for dakgalbi, a mix of chicken, vegetables, and rice cakes. You can, and I did, visit Dakgalbi St. where there are at least 20 restaurants serving this within 2 blocks.

Chuncheon, below, is less beautiful than it appears to be.

This is the ferry that goes to Jungdo, or Jung Island.

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Central Park

02May08

Here are some photos of Dongtan Central Park, the most beautiful, amazing park I’ve ever seen. The main park also connects to another section of the park that cuts through the entire downtown area of Dongtan underneath the main streets. It’s not quite as large as its namesake in NYC, but it’s sure a lot nicer.

Here’s the river that runs through it.

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